cranebump

Gave it a run this morning:

In conversation afterward, they seemed new. Said they wanted to play the game specifically to be Dr. Strange and weren’t coming back. By the end of the conversation, they did say “IF I come back,” and joked that they’d take the generic as a sign of being too good at making costumes. But really. They got renamed as I was warning them. And it was a pretty good costume.:-)

Glad I have you to tell me what's right and what's wrong. Haven't blocked/ignored/reported anyone at all around here, ever. Till now.

Would have, after I gave 'em fair warning. Wasn't fast enough, obviously. (And gosh, I hope you can hear me up there on that high horse).

Well, I tried to warn him what was going to happen. After it did, we had a discussion about what happened & why. They were gonna just shuck the game, but I tried to convince 'em to stay. Not sure it was a success. (Btw, didn't have to stalk. We naturally overlapped in zone. Maybe next time don't assume you know what someone is thinking/doing 'til you ask.)

Tried to warn 'em. I was way too late.

Well, THERE you are:

I missed the snapshot of this dude (standing right next to me at Blue Steel), but: So, bravo on the costume. Well done. Now, can you not call down the wrath of Dormam...er, things & stuff on us?

Not technically a TF, but the Skulls are featured in the KR Superadine ring arc that ends with Eagle Eye. Morana escapes, however, and isn’t ultimately dealt with. The Petrovic Brothers are, but maybe there’s more to it than that?

My initial reaction to my earlier run of Spirals was, Gdit! They're everywhere! (crossing patrols and such):-)

I thought this guy was stationary?

So take out Misery in the KR arc, exit mish, and who follows me out? Stop saying that. You are NOT Groot.

Excellent! I'll get those 3 additional arcs ready.;-)

I'm not certain of the Hellions. I thought they topped out at 14, but you may be right on that. It would keep them in line with the Skulls.

Skulls are mislabeled, too. They go up to 20, iirc.

Oh, man...I figured on Crey having something, but I'm pretty sure it was the confused teammate. I've never had targeting issues like that before. And seeing as how one of my attacks seemed to hit my ally tank, that would explain it. Happened a LOT, including when I was trying to finish off some purps.

Ran into something versus Crey today during a Manticore TF. Some sort of Taunt/Placate, but there would be significant periods of time where my melee brute couldn’t target anything. I assume one of the protectors had it, but holy moley-I didn’t have great AoEs, so there was a lot of tabbing and hoping.

Yeah, I usually just bounce to the Gish in KR, and hope around the overpasses. But I thought I'd do this instead.

They're seriously plucky down there: See? Later, one of them yells, We could make a name for ourselves! Indeed, sir...you could, but...

So, I push Glogre from Red to Blue after reaching L42 (via tips). I beat the living crap out of Calvin Scott (which, for me, is a thing). THEN I get Montague's arc. I have to cure lost. Where do I go? Yep. Ran down there, cured 'em, then ran all the way to The (best) Row. Those suckers even tried to attack me (how precious). Seeing all those mobs, I recalled the days when you'd dive into the tubes, then make a run for The Row, or Steel. Getting all the way there intact was always a thrill Ahhhh, nostalgia...

While I agree in principle with everything @Luminara posted, above, you can safely assume that, if someone was terminal, and they knew they could be saved by methods, practices, discoveries that came from unethical research, you bet your ass they’d take advantage of it. Ethics goes out the window when people are desperate. I ain’t sayin’ it’d be the right thing to do, but dying a noble death is easier said than done. and no…I’m not cynical…:-)

Agreed on hearing opposing views. And if I may ruminate: As a history teacher I make it a point to look at everything, including the harsh, unpleasant truths of the past. How else can we know who we were, where we’ve been, and what we’d like to be (and not be)? We live in an age, however, where people want to expunge anything that doesn’t agree with their version of the past, because it’s difficult, uncomfortable. Sanitizing the past in any manner may go far in making us feel better about ourselves. But it does a disservice to our being to paint pretty pictures of the often unpretty past. What is true is that the world has always been a difficult place, with difficult situations, and difficult people. You move forward by confronting the reality, then determining the next step. Being comfortable? That won’t get us anywhere but our own couch (so to speak).

Tweaks of Of Guns and Asa Ronan:

With Magnificence out, and the recent Twitch run of Asa Ronan, I plan on tweaking some older arcs. On the backburner, I want to do something involving pets at the forefront (fire imps, for example). I'm not sure what's already there among the stock enemy groups, not exactly sure what the story angle is. With Potter's Field and Magnificence being vigilante/rogue ethos, I plan on returning blue side for this one. Haven't decided which zone to feature, or whether I want to do any callbacks from my stockpile of NPCs. If anyone has any recs about what they'd like to see (or whom they might like to see more of), let me know. I start back to work later this week, so this won't be something that comes out really quickly, unless I get lucky and get on some sort of a roll. Tagential: I'm about finished with my first edit of a manuscript I've been working on for over a year. I'll need to make corrections, as well as do some additional chapters to flesh out the overall metastory. It's basically a series of linked superhero stories, set in an alt-history, brought about by the actions of the narrator, who, through some strange alchemy of alien energy, his own abilities, and some weird, cosmic interaction between all that and a mothership explosion, becomes omniscient, and able to experience (and sometimes interact) with various events in the new timeline. So, he's sorta like my version of The Sandman. Basically a writer's trick that allows me to tell disparate stories, linked together by the inciting event. I find I do better when I do that, rather than trying to tell a single, novel-length tale (more directly, it allows my lazy, distracted ass not to have to stick to one thing). I'm hoping to have a finished, self-published version by next summer. I DO use the names of a couple of my CoH toons here and there, but it isn't a big vanity project (in that manner, at least). I just know that I like superhero stories, in the vein of a Kurt Busiek. So, I guess you'd call it Astro City meets Sandman. Of course, what's f***ed up about all this is that it took me like 45 years to figure out that I should just write what I like to write. Assuming I finish the damned thing, I have CoH and AE to thank for it, as well as the encouragement of people who've played and commented on my arcs (not to mention the master storytellers here, whose stuff I have played, envied, and, on some cases tried to emulate (i.e., steal from).:-) Anything that comes out of all this is a testament to you folks, this game, and the community that continues to inspire my long-held love of superheroes to this day. So, thanks for that, and thanks in advance to any future contributions/feedback I receive. You're a great group. Now...back to hunting down and fixing those typos (aka "hte neverendng task").:-) Crane

B. If you can get any good out of that crap, you probably should. The question I ask myself is, “if I were killed in one of those horrible experiments, but my death could save someone’s life later on, I’d rather the life be saved.” Different subject, but I also recall Trek explored similar theme involving the Bomb (an Oppenheimer type character who created a doomsday weapon who later wanted to use his theories for good). When the scientist was asked why he worked on the weapon when he knew what it would do, he said someone would have done it anyway. He added, “it’s good to know the way the world works” (or something to that effect). Not the same as human experimentation, by any means, but the driver of advancement is always the question. The question of consequences does not always immediately follow. And therein lies the prospective dangers.